This was an Olympic 100m final that felt like a brawl: messy, exhilarating, extraordinary, raw. As the world’s eight best male sprinters crossed the finish line in an almighty heap, their form disintegrating as their desperation grew, the giant stadium screens gave no indication of the result. Only the word “photo-finish” was by everyone’s name.
In the desperate seconds that followed, Noah Lyles, the American who is track and field’s greatest showman, went over to the young Jamaican star, Kishane Thompson. “I think you’ve got the Olympics, big dog.” For once, though, Lyles was wrong. But only just.
It came down to just five thousandths of a second: the width of a torso, a blink of an eye. That was the margin between gold and silver, and the gap between Lyles and Thompson, after their heads bobbed over the line in 9.79sec.
When he saw that victory was his, Lyles began sprinting again around the track, stars and stripes in hand, embracing the delirium. “He was in lane 4, I was in lane 7, so I couldn’t really see what was happening,” he said afterwards. “I continued to run like I would win it. Something told me: ‘I need to lean.’ It is that type of race. It was crazy.”
It was not entirely clear, though, how he had done it. Thompson is known for his lightning fast starts and his incredible top end speed. In truth he runs like an American football running back, who is determined to smash through everything in his way. And for about 95 metres it seemed that the Olympic gold medal was in his grasp.
Lyles, meanwhile, was in last place after 30 metres, his start lacking the explosiveness and pop of his rivals. Yet over the final few metres he finished like a TGV train to somehow pass the 23-year-old Jamaican on the dip.
The official results showed just how close it was. Lyles had run 9.784. Thompson 9.789. Another American, Fred Kerley, took bronze in 9.81, with the South African Akani Simbine fourth. But every man in the field easily broke 10 seconds. No wonder Michael Johnson described it as the greatest 100m final ever.
There were echoes here of the 1980 Olympic 100m final in Moscow, when Alan Wells beat the Cuban Silvio Leonard by 76mm. But this was even closer.
If there was an explanation for Lyles’ victory, it was perhaps because he was able to hold his nerve after the longest preliminaries to a major race in Olympic history.
It started with the sprinters being introduced to the 75,000 crowd at the Stade de France with the lights dimming before a dazzling show to the soundtrack of Kavinsky.
As they were introduced, one by one, Thompson roared, while Kerley put his fingers to his lips. Lyles, meanwhile, bounded halfway down the track, hollering in excitement.
But instead of getting into the blocks the athletes had to wait several minutes for the stadium lights to come back to full brightness.
The long wait probably benefited Lyles most of all. He had been beaten in his semi-final but now he looked in his element, while many of his rivals appeared nervous and tight.
Then came the race, the blur of bodies, and the uncertainty. And, for Thompson, regrets at what might have been.
As the photo-finish was scrutinised, he was screaming “Come on!” at the big screen while he waited for the official result. But it was not to be. Thompson’s foot crossed the line first but the American’s torso was marginally in front. “I wasn’t patient enough with myself to let my speed bring me to the line, in the position that I know I could have gone to,” he said.
However Thompson disagreed when asked whether the gold medal should be shared, given how close the two men were at the line.
“I think the sport is too competitive, no offence to any other sport,” he said. “It’s too competitive for us to share a gold medal.”
There were no Britons in the final with both Louie Hinchliffe and Zharnel Hughes failing to make it out of the semi-finals. The 21-year-old Hinchliffe has had an incredible season, which has seen him smash through the 100m barrier and win the prestigious NCAA title. However a third place finish and a time of 9.97 was not quite enough.
Hughes, meanwhile, blamed the after-effects of a hamstring injury in early June after finishing sixth in 10.01 in his semi-final.
But this night was all about Lyles, along with the question of what he might do next. When he won the world 200m title in 2022 he set his sights on a daring new goal: becoming a global star and influencer. It sounded like a preposterous dream. Now it increasingly looks like the new reality.
Who would dare bet against a man who won three gold medals at the 2023 world championships in Budapest, repeating the trick in Paris over the coming days? Or shooting into the sporting stratosphere?
And, once again the Netflix cameras and boom mics will be in tow, making him the main man in the second series of the docuseries Sprint.
“I am going around as the Olympic champion,” he said. “I have that title as the world’s fastest man. This has been years in the making.”
And then came a smile that told you that is exactly the way he likes it.
• This article was amended on 5 August 2024. Noah Lyles “finished like a TGV train”, not an RER as an earlier version said.
